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Eon: The Jade Warriors (Spring 2008)
In which Baudin Dommilan accepts an errand job and ends up on the ride of his life. Triple-crossing, backstabbing, and group hugs abound! Episodes The Pilot Episode: The One-Shot :Baudin Dommilan has been given an errand and a ship, and he's planning to make the most of it. One of his current patrons, Marcus Fairlan , wants him to go to a little town in the north of Baldur and boost the local economy with some weapons trade. So Baudin takes his two loyal and underpaid assistants, Yolanda and Ulfgar, his mother-in-law Jenka, and Yolanda's cousin, and sets out north to King's Reach. They've heard wild rumors about that area, with towns full of the undead and a strange sickness called the Red Plague laying waste, but they're on a much more mundane mission. To their mild dismay, Marcus has asked one of his personal men, whom they call Bookish, to accompany them. :As they approach the town, they are met by a man in a red cape and hat, who introduces himself only as The Mayor, and asks a favor of the party. He claims to have lost an amulet of significant personal importance, and offers great rewards in exchange for its return. He explains that the amulet has been split into three pieces: two metal halves of a circle, each with writing around the edge, and a jewel for a centerpiece. If reassembled, it will confer great power onto the bearer, provided that the bearer knows what to do with it. The jewel is likely AT THE BOTTOM OF THE LAKE in the nearby orc territory, which is headed by Brescar. One half of the outer amulet piece is rumored to be in the possession of the local cleric, Pyotar Umarou. With that, he departs as swiftly and mysteriously as he arrived. :Upon reaching the town, Baudin seeks to conclude his work as quickly as possible, but if information on an amulet should happen to come their way, then who is he to turn down another source of income and other people being indebted to him? The lovely (or so the orcs say) Yolanda decides to deal with Brescar, her reluctant cousin tagging along behind her. Lo and behold, some smooth talk later, Brescar agrees to have his people retrieve the jewel from the lake for her, so long as she returns the amulet to them in full when she's done. For, you see, Brescar also claims to have lost an amulet of significant personal importance, sing it with me now, etc. :Later, the party reassembled, they meet Pyotar in his temple. They first explain that they are on an errand for Marcus Fairlan in regards to weaponry, and then maneuver the conversation to the amulet. He has no intention of giving his piece of the amulet to them, and warns them about its power. The party appears to accept defeat gracefully, and then promptly turns around and tries to work out how best to extract the amulet piece from his possession. The eventual plan results in Jenka making an evening visit to Pyotar's home for a soul-searching discussion about the power of good, the strength of beliefs, and how force of will can overcome even the greatest of obstacles. :Jenka returns to the party's caravan the next morning with the amulet piece given to her in trust for the whole amulet returned when she can (of course), but also a converted woman: she is now lawful good, for reasons which she claims are 'private'. Baudin throws up in his mouth a little and sets about concluding his business in weaponry, and also deciding which of their three benefactors he should give the amulet to...if any of them at all. :(Notes: I can't for the life of me remember clearly where the third piece of the amulet came from. Did Tyro give it to them? I'm pretty sure they had it assembled by the end of this session. I also don't remember if Marcus Fairlan specified anything about the amulet to Baudin's group. I don't think so? Also, was the weapons deal with Pyotar? I think so...) : : Episode Two: The Plot Doesn't Just Thicken, It Coagulates :After some heated discussion about the destination of the amulet that they're holding, the party splits (oh no!) -- most to keep Bookish occupied, and Baudin to return to the caravan to pick up some...stuff. On his spot check to find his own caravan again, Baudin rolls a two, but still manages to find it. It's right there, after all. :Baudin enters his caravan and is very distressed to find that someone has been reorganizing things. Perhaps it was the human girl sitting on the floor sharpening a weapon, or the half-elf reading a book. Or, he thinks, after the girl tackles him, maybe he isn't in his caravan after all. It probably didn't help that he bluffed that they should get out of his caravan since guards were coming, and the half-elf at least believed the part about the guards. Fortunately, his companions have arrived to help him out! Unfortunately, when Yolanda tries to remove the half-elf standing on her boss's face, she finds herself paralyzed. :Several utterances of "Okay, I'm pretty sure that we can talk this through" and "I didn't mean to do that!" later, the girl introduces herself as Fennyn, and the half-elf as her employer, Ethan of Malvont. They explain that they're just a pair of travelers passing through; they recognize the name of Marcus Fairlan, and out of lack of anything else to do, decide to tag along with Baudin for the time being as a sort of half-assed apology for tackling him on sight, and not even remotely in the fun way. :What they do not explain is that they were sent by Marcus Fairlan to keep an eye on Baudin, and to retrieve the amulet for Marcus if Baudin's group didn't happen across it and decide to bring it back. :While Granny struggles with her conscience over whether or not to return the whole amulet to Pyotar, and Yolanda tries to convince the rest of the corporation that favoring Brescar would be in their best interests and also the right thing to do, The Mayor is largely ignored; he has not reappeared, and his offered rewards were nebulous. Bookish repeatedly brings up the topic of concluding their business and returning to Baldur, and is roundly shunned in favor of determining the fate of small, shiny objects. Eventually the promise of certain money wins out, and the transaction is completed. More promises are made regarding the eventual ownership of the amulet, and Baudin's group begins to pack up in preparation to depart. Ulfgar, Yolanda, and Yolanda's cousin take themselves off to the inn for some much-needed drinks, Ethan and Fennyn return to their own caravan, Baudin and Granny settle in for some quality pointedly-ignoring-each-other time, and it seems to be a quiet evening all around. :Then Yolanda notices something very strange about the water in the town. Notably, that she doesn't think the water in the fountain is even remotely drinkable any more. :That's about when The Mayor walks into town. :His name is Tyro, it seems. He's brought his sister with him, and he wants his amulet back. Not too long after Tyro arrives, Brescar waltzes in with a small army from the north, also looking for the amulet. Nothing sets off Baudin's possessiveness like someone trying to take something from him, so he throws caution and diplomacy to the winds and starts fighting back against anyone who comes near him, Granny at his side. Yolanda, while fiercely loyal to her boss, isn't very pleased with the idea of fighting orcs over a promise she made to them, so she tries to talk them down while fighting off Tyro and his sister. Ulfgar, finding himself surrounded in a bar by people who are now hostile to him, Gets an Idea. :Meanwhile, Ethan and Fennyn decide that if they don't get to have the amulet, they at least prefer that it goes to the person who lets them follow him around, and start weighing in from the sidelines by crossbow and Magic Missile. :During the heated battle, Bookish appears at the far end of the town and begins to summon something, giving no indication as to whose side he is on -- until Marcus Fairlan walks up next to him. Ethan and Fennyn hide, and things might have gotten really awkward for them and for Baudin if Ulfgar hadn't come flying out of a burning inn right about then. :Tyro's sister has, by now, been defeated and fallen into a river, and Tyro himself is on the verge of retreating. Brescar's force has taken heavy casualties as well, and Baudin's group isn't in perfect health, either. What could have turned into an ugly battle of attrition is abruptly ended when Bookish finishes his summon and a black dragon appears, thereby making him Public Enemy #1. :Fennyn, ascribing to the school of Kill the Summoner and the Summon Goes Poof, starts firing at Bookish in the hopes of getting rid of the dragon either before her employer has a very strange kind of panic attack or before it kills them both. Others of Baudin's group are more than happy to take the opportunity to take a shot at Bookish, as well. Bookish, never a strong sort, is eventually felled by one of Fennyn's arrows, and with him dies only the control over the dragon, but not the dragon itself. :Tyro has long since disappeared, Brescar's forces are retreating, and Baudin motions for his comrades to flee to the temple. Fennyn, faced with a dragon with only a hysterical wizard and a caravan to work with, drives that fucker straight at the temple doors in the hopes of making it there either before the dragon comes after them or Baudin shuts the doors on them. :As she and Ethan join the group already hiding inside the temple, the last thing that any of them see of the battle is Marcus Fairlan reaching up to the dragon with some manner of jewel in his hand, commanding it to obey him...and the dragon landing square on him instead. :The doors close, and our heroes are left in the dark. :Fortunately, most of them have dark vision. :(Notes: I don't really remember the first half hour of this session because I was too busy being terrified. Someone else please halp if I'm omitting too much. Also, I think this is how the timing of the major events in battle went, but I can't be certain.) Episode Three: I Cast Magic Missile at the Darkness Because I Never Learned to Cast Light :After barring the doors and finding it ominously quiet outside, the party decides to see how far they can get into the temple. At the far end of the front chamber, they find a series of candles on a slab with writing engraved into it. (Note: I don't remember the riddle specifically, but I think it involved 'light without flame' and so on. Suffice it to say that there was a riddle.) Ulfgar declares that of course this is a secret door, as this is where a secret door ought to be if there were one. :After hours of fruitlessly trying to figure out what this riddle means, if anything, the party decides to think on it for the night and rest. Amid the chaos of setting up camp inside the main room of a temple, healing the wounded, determining who will keep watch, and exactly what they plan to do if someone does happen along and try to kill them, Ethan and Fennyn haul Baudin aside for a talk. Having learned that Baudin moonlights as an evil cleric, and therefore can cast inflict magic, Ethan offers a trade: free enchantment of any of Baudin's items with Ghoul Glyphs if Baudin will oblige him by kindly not healing him -- rather, by using inflict magic rather than curative magic should Ethan become unable to cast spells on his own. This deal is to be kept quiet from the rest of Baudin's group. Baudin, never one to pass up a chance to have someone indebted to him, agrees. :While on watch, Yolanda and her keen goat-guarding senses realize that there is something large on the roof of the building, as she can hear it breathing. Hoping that whatever it is stays on the roof of the building, she decides not to investigate further. Though the party had expected to have to make some very creative excuses to Pyotar as to why they were sleeping on the pews in his temple, he never appears. :The next morning, the party returns to the candles and stares at them some more, by this time more tempted to break through the slab by force rather than solve the riddle. Eventually, Yolanda's cousin, frustrated by the lack of activity, asks Ethan and Jenka to cast Light on the far candle. Ethan is forced to admit that he never figured out how to cast Light, though fortunately Jenka has the spell prepared and obliges. The slab easily slides aside, revealing a set of stairs beneath it. Hoping to find a second exit that doesn't involve the thing breathing heavily on the roof, the party continues downward. :They find themselves in a large underground chamber with two doors on the far side and a 30-foot deep pit in the center of the room. Skirting the pit, they first decide to explore the room behind the more ornate door. Yolanda, Ulfgar, and Ethan go inside for a better look, at which point the door closes after them and water begins filling the room. That's right, it's a water trap. (Note: Was there something more than this that set it off?) :The three of them immediately set out trying to open the door, and find that there are letters covering the back of the door in a random order. Unfortunately, Ulfgar is illiterate, so he initially focuses on helping to keep Ethan and Yolanda above water. However, as Ethan and Yolanda run through a series of possible words to no avail, it occurs to Ulfgar that while he cannot read, he has seen some of these symbols before. As he tries to recall exactly where, the water just about reaches the ceiling. Ethan can barely swim, and so is dragging Yolanda under water as she tries to keep him afloat. Ethan tells her to drop him, and after some rushed back-and-forthing to the effect of "TRUST ME!" "ARE YOU INSANE?" "TRUST ME!" she drops him and focuses on taking her last few breaths of air before the water reaches the ceiling. :In the last moments before he begins to drown, Ulfgar realizes where he's seen these symbols before -- he remembers them from the engravings on the outer pieces of the amulet. He quickly traces out the letters in order, and the door opens. Yolanda and Ulfgar manage to grab onto the doorframe and the top of the pit before they can be swept into it. Ethan does not, and promptly makes close acquaintance with the watery bottom of the pit as well as the hundreds of gallons of water rushing out of the water trap room. :Baudin's company is shocked to find that their new pet wizard not only didn't drown after spending an unhealthy amount of time underwater, but wasn't killed by the fall. Grievously wounded and with a broken leg, yes, but still able to ask for someone to please come retrieve him sometime this century. :After rigging up a rope, Ulfgar climbs down into the pit and finds Ethan on one of the two stone coffins at the bottom of the pit. Both coffins are sealed, which piques Ulfgar's curiosity like nothing else, but he does make sure to tie the end of the rope to Ethan rather than himself before he goes to explore further. :Once Ethan is deposited on the floor at the top, Fennyn takes out her crossbow and camps out next to him. Jenka offers to heal Ethan and is rebuffed by Baudin, to her confusion. Ignoring him, she goes over to Ethan to heal him, and finds herself with a crossbow aimed into her face and Baudin verbally flailing. Realizing he'll take a crossbow bolt to the face if he doesn't bail Ethan out of this, Baudin explains: their new pet wizard is an undead wizard. Jenka, being freshly lawful good, immediately wants to know why she shouldn't just kill Ethan. Baudin verbally flails some more and eventually shrieks that he's in love with Ethan. :Everyone stares. :It's a bluff check, of course, and absolutely no one falls for it. Yolanda and Ulfgar, deciding as one that their boss is incapable of being diplomatic, intervene: they don't have any particular problem with the undead, and they both don't like the idea of killing someone who helped them just for existing. Jenka is unconvinced, and things risk getting very unpleasant until Baudin discovers that he has a talent for evangelizing. He promptly throws himself into a five-minute speech about the joys of redeeming evil to the side of good, and how good intentions can make good people if only those who have already seen the light just give them a chance. This is a message that Jenka can get behind, and as she begins working out how best to convert Ethan to the side of good, Baudin facepalms and heals Ethan enough that Ethan can go sulk in a corner and cast Inflict Minor ad infinitum. :Revelation past and crisis resolved, Ulfgar returns to exploring the coffins below. The party, now realizing that their barbarian is thirty feet down and merrily trying to pry the lid off of a stone coffin in a hidden chamber below a temple, is very concerned about the wisdom of his actions. Ulfgar assures them that everything will be just fine as he gets one of the coffin lids ajar. Large green ghostly hands immediately emerge from the coffin, seize him, and then disappear. Ulfgar, shaken, puts the lid back and asks for a rope so that he can return to the surface for the time being. However, upon reaching the surface, Ulfgar finds that he's developed a bit more of a tendency to be rash, and also to laugh a bit maniacally at times. :The party turns to address the second door, beyond which they find a series of chambers that may belong to Pyotar, though they aren't quite certain. They don't look like they've been recently inhabited. The party, deciding that they deserve some loot for their troubles, begins to search the room. Ethan discovers a tapestry depicting (oh god what is that spell called), which takes four very high level clerics to cast, and kills them instantly upon its casting. He freaks out a bit, whereas Ulfgar checks behind the tapestry for hidden doors. :Fennyn discovers a magnificent sword known as the Shatterspike and claims it for her own, to Ulfgar's dismay. He, however, has found a small box that rattles. In fact, it rattles in a way that indicates that whatever is inside might be capable of moving on its own. Ulfgar tentatively shakes the box a few more times, and then names whatever is inside "Buddy". He immediately decides that he needs to free Buddy, the preliminary steps of which are to shake the box a bit more and exclaim "Buddy!" at random intervals. While most of the party tries to talk him out of sawing open a box that could contain any number of unpleasant things, Ethan starts giggling hysterically every time Ulfgar says "Buddy!" and is thus useless for the next half hour. :Eventually Fennyn agrees to use the Shatterspike to break open the box. It sings a high C upon contact with the wood, and the box explodes outward in a flurry of splinters. Ulfgar's questions are answered: Buddy is a kobold. Ulfgar immediately picks him up and hugs him tightly. However, no one in the party speaks any of the languages that kobolds do, so Ulfgar tries to make do with hand signs and frequent repetitions of "Buddy!" At this point Ethan curls up in a corner and demands of the universe why this is so entertaining, and then returns to his gigglefits. :Buddy frequently tries to escape as the rest of the party searches their way through the rooms, and occasionally tries to bite or scratch Ulfgar to make him let go. After a while, he seems to calm down enough that Ulfgar lets him go. Buddy immediately takes off for the room with the pit, and Ulfgar runs after him. The party collectively sighs and follows. :They arrive to find that Buddy has leapt into the pit, and Ulfgar is planning to follow. Before they can convince him otherwise, Ulfgar chases after his littlest friend. When the party catches up, they see Buddy at the bottom of the pit, somehow opening the other coffin. :Out of the coffin rises Pyotar Umarou, distinctly a vampire, and distinctly pissed. :Pyotar flies straight up and goes after the party without words being exchanged. Ulfgar, at the bottom of the pit, considers climbing back up to the top to help his companions, but discards this in favor of hunting Buddy down and punishing him. Baudin and his companions haven't come this far to roll over and let a vampire kill them all, and so they fight back. Jenka attempts to slow Pyotar and drag him out of the air with Web, Ethan continually runs to the exact opposite corner of the room from Pyotar while spamming Magic Missile, and Baudin, Yolanda, Fennyn, and Yolanda's cousin all go after Pyotar in melee. :Yolanda is quickly disabled by one of Pyotar's attacks, which drains her Con, and most of the other melee attackers aren't having much success in hitting or damaging Pyotar. Fennyn, however, is finding that her new sword is highly effective. Magic Missile also seems to be working out for Ethan relatively well. :Meanwhile, at the bottom of the pit, Ulfgar finally pounces on Buddy, says, "Bad Buddy," and punches him unconscious. :Back at the vampire club, Pyotar also seems to think that Fennyn and her new sword are far too effective. Angered, he strikes out at her and kills her in one critical blow. As she dies, she reaches for Baudin and informs him, "I...always hated you the most..." :Ulfgar had been considering returning to the top before this event, but this seals it. Unaided by rope, Ulfgar begins to scale the walls of the pit in order to take revenge. Ethan has similar goals, and continues to throw Magic Missiles from across the room. Web finally takes effect, and Baudin redoubles his attacks now that Pyotar is less able to evade him. :Pyotar is gravely wounded by the time Ulfgar reaches the top of the pit, so much so that when Ulfgar takes up the Shatterspike and strikes at Pyotar in Fennyn's name, Pyotar falls all the way back down to the bottom of the pit onto the lids of one of the coffins, and does not move. :The party, after ascertaining that Fennyn is beyond help, turns to the issue of Pyotar. They know that one way to ensure that Pyotar is truly dead is to strike him in the heart with a silver dagger. Ethan volunteers, explaining that he owns a silver dagger and is light enough to be easily lowered by rope down to the coffin lid. The party agrees and sends Ethan down to deal with the defeated Pyotar. Upon reaching Pyotar, however, Ethan doesn't bother with a silver dagger; he has a much more permanent and less messy solution, or so he thinks. After checking that no one is particularly paying attention to him, he eats Pyotar's soul. Once all of the animation has drained from Pyotar's body, Ethan goes through his pockets for loose change and takes his boots and weapons, presenting them to the party upon reaching the top. :The party, shaken and tired, reluctantly leaves their fallen comrade as they search for a place to rest, and a way out of the temple. As they leave the room, Ulfgar takes one of Fennyn's fingers with him in the hopes of having her resurrected one day. :(Note: If the sequence of events is out of order, please correct me -- I think I have it, but I'm not certain.) Episode Four: Yet Another Bar Explodes The Filler Episode:'' Seven Years Ago, A Meeting'' :Envision a bar, somewhere. Seedy, yes, but comfortable. There are a few people scattered around it, drinking. Some of them are in groups, such as the dwarf and young woman sitting together, talking cheerfully about various ways of hitting people on the head. Some of them are alone, such as the half-elf steadily drinking himself under the table. Some of them are Baudin Dommilan, who has just rolled into the bar and is looking to extract protection money from the owner for his patron, Marcus Fairlan. :Now envision some brave person throwing a punch. :This episode is a tale of a teenaged girl bonding with an older dwarf, of a mage giggling hysterically as he tries to figure out which way is up with Magic Missile as a guide, and of a man who can look at the wreckage of a bar due to a fight that he might have caused and say, "I'll take that out of your debt." :Who would have known that the dwarf would one day end up wearing the girl's finger around his neck in case he ever encountered someone handing out free True Resurrections? That the girl would one day end up protecting the half-elf she was staring at in the bar? That all four of these people would travel together, even if briefly, but without ever remembering that they had met once before? :(Notes: I have but a vague idea as to when this happened, but I think it was relatively early. It was probably later than this, though.) : Episode Five: So Many Uses for Mage Hand, So Little Time Episode Six: I May Be a Tiny Crime Lord, but I've got an Enormous... :(Notes: I don't remember whether or not returning to Malvont and talking to Vishnu were two separate sessions. I don't have a distinct memory of either taking very long, and I'm pretty sure that Stephen was the one who negotiated with Vishnu, whereas the epic barrel rolling was an achievement of Old Man Mike's.Either way, unless something epic happened that I'm forgetting, I think we can condense it into one 'episode' for our recaps...) Episode Seven: In Which a Bar Remains Mostly Intact Episode Eight: I Blow a Hole in the Ship''' '' Episode Nine:'' '''I Roll Intimidate, You Roll Diplomacy... Episode Ten: The Most Epic Game of Three Dragon Ante Ever Episode Eleven: The Dangers of an Easily Distracted Party Episode Twelve: The Hall of Many Things, Part I: Spikes! On the Side of My Face! Episode Thirteen: The Hall of Many Things, Part II: An Ending and a Beginning Episode Fourteen: The Hall of Many Things, Part III: Mirror Mirror Tricky Tricky Episode Fifteen: I Can't Leave You People Alone for Five Freaking Minutes Episode Sixteen: Control Undead! :(Notes: I will come up with a better title for this once I can remember where we were and what we were doing when Baudin showed up. Please contribute your own if you can. On the other hand, this title is probably more tasteful than all of the others...) Episode Seventeen: It's On Now: Baldur vs. Malvont The Hot Springs Episode: Stop, Drop (the Soap) and Roll Season Finale:'' I Grapple the Beholder'' ---- Next Season: Eon: Infinite Horizons (Summer 2008) Adventures with this party will continue in Eon: Unsolved Mysteries (Fall 2008)! ---- Characters Starring: *Baudin Dommilan *Yolanda *Ulfgar *Yolanda's cousin (I am blanking on his name) *Jenka Introducing (in order of appearance): *Ethan of Malvont *Fennyn (please correct my spelling as needed) *Kytia *Ashra *Jose and his bear *Shiolay *Sil'meelen (please correct my spelling, etc.) *Sir Tobo of Port Brogan *Fauntleroy